ShirtsMyWay.com, a startup founded by two Danish guys, Michael Yang and Peter Crawfurd, lets you to design your own custom dress shirts with an online tool. It’s possible to select from several fabrics, combine with different cuts, thread colors, collars, cuffs, pockets and buttons and fit the shirt with your own measurements. You can order several or just one shirt with your own custom design and pay only for the base fabric.
The shirt design and order process is pretty nifty and you get a visual proof of every change. Co-founder Peter Crawfurd mentions about developing the site: “Not only is the programming of the site difficult, we had to make about two thousand images to make the shirt model work.”
In any case, the actual concept is far from simple, since the company is dealing with over 7 trillion different possible designs of an actual physical product. “This also means that we have a very detailed quality control check to make sure everything is as it should be.”, Peter continues. Founders believe that tackling a hard and unique problem is a key edge in a market as completive as clothing.
Company is actually headquartered in Hong Kong has been in business for a month. Founders tell us that they’re planning and making continuous improvements on the site but still gathering data deciding where to focus their efforts.
ShirtsMyWay’s concept is somewhat similar what we have seen with other on-demand online services like Lulu for book publishing and with those endless t-shirt stores. It’s interesting to see if the concept can be profitably transferred to other sectors as well from clothing and printing.
When mass-markets are ruled by big players producing standard products, is there a cap for small startups to deal with customers that want something different? ShirtsMyWay seems to believe so and shows it’s also possible without huge resources.
